Miguel Morgado
Paris 2024 overlaps with the 100th anniversary of the first Portuguese Olympic medal. The Portuguese medal record started out with a Bronze in Riding with four riders, two civilians and two military and completed Tokyo with a record four medals having gone around Portuguese necks in this Games, two in athletics, one of them gold, in judo and in canoeing. In total, Portugal has picked up 28 medals, with 5 golds, 9 silvers and 14 bronze medals. Athletics leads the way with medal winners in 9 events and the only source of gold medals. Following two successes in the premiere of surfing and skating at the Olympic Games, Portuguese ‘breakdance’ may be taking to the stage in Paris.
Aníbal Borges de Almeida, Luís Cardoso de Menezes, Hélder de Sousa Martins and José Mouzinho de Albuquerque were the stars in the Portuguese riding team that secured a bronze medal at the Paris Olympic Games in 1924, an occasion for which Portugal sent 28 athletes, all male, competing in eight events, with an emphasis on Fencing and Shooting but without any football due to a misunderstanding between José Ponte, President of the Olympic Committee of Portugal and Cândido de Oliveira, who would be the national manager premiering the Portuguese football at the Amsterdam Olympic Games in 1928.
Two civilians, Borges de Almeida, then aged 18 and one of the youngest ever medal winners and Cardoso de Menezes and two military officers, Sousa Martins and Mouzinho de Albuquerque, were responsible for bringing the first Olympic success to Portugal, won in the Colombes hippodrome, Paris. This achievement came twelve years after the first appearance (Stockholm 1912) of a Portuguese team at the Games.
Abertura dos Jogos Olímpicos Tóquio 2020
Taking a giant leap through time, a pandemic and a year after schedule, the Portuguese Mission in Tokyo 2020, the 32nd Olympic Games in the Modern Era, an event held in 2021, was made up of 92 athletes (its 3rd largest ever and equalling the number at Rio 2016 but still down on the numbers attending the Olympic Games in Barcelona 1992, 101 athletes and Atlanta 1966, with 107), with 36 female athletes (a record), covering 17 different sports and competing in 67 medal events, seven more than in Rio 2016.
The Portuguese team returned from Japan with four medals. One gold (Pedro Pablo Pichardo, a Luso-Cuban athlete, in the triple jump), one silver, (Patrícia Mamona, in the triple jump), and two bronzes (Jorge Fonseca in -100 kg judo) and (Fernando Pimenta, canoeing, K1 1000).
The four Olympic medals brought back from Japan, double the target set out in the 18.55 million euro contract-program, turned Tokyo 2020 into the best Olympic Games ever for the Portuguese team. This beat the numbers set in Los Angeles 1984 (gold to Lopes and silvers to Rosa Mota and António Leitão) and Athens 2004 (silvers to the cyclist Sérgio Paulino and the sprinter Francis Obikwelu and bronze to Rui Silva in the 1500 metres).
In medals but not only. Also in terms of the diplomas won that, including the podium positions, reached a total of 15, two more than those achieved in Athens 2004, the previous maximum.
THE POWER OF STATES THROUGH PRECIOUS METALS
Tokyo 2020 awarded 339 titles. 93 countries took home at least one medal. Botswana, Burkina Faso (Hugues Zango in the men’s Triple Jump won by Pedro Pablo Pichardo), Ivory Coast, Ghana, Granada, Kuwait, Republic of Moldova and Syria, all with bronzes, prop up the bottom of the medals table.
Among those further up, Portugal ended up alongside Ethiopia in 56th place, 47th in the global ranking from summing up the gold (1), silver (1) and bronze (2).
The top-3 rankings were taken by two of the usual and a new member on the block.
The 39 gold medals, 41 silver and 33 bronze, 113 medals in total, placed the United States of America as the top medal winner at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
Topping the medals table is a place that the country with a flag of 50 stars, seven red and six white horizontal stripes knows so very well. At 29 Olympic Games, they have led the way on 18 occasions. From Sydney 2000 to Rio de Janeiro 2016, only in Beijing 2008 did they not sit at the pinnacle of the medals table and knocked off by the host country, the People’s Republic of China.
“The Star-Spangled Banner” was heard 39 times but only one more than China’s national anthem. The Asian state picked up 38 gold, 32 silver and 18 bronze, totalling 88 medals around the necks of its athletes.
“Our team, when it goes to any international competition, wishes to show the strength of China”, pointed out Wang Zhouyu, weightlifting winner (87 kg) reflecting the affirmation regarding the boosting of the sovereignty of China through sport made by Xi Jinping.
The 27 gold, 14 silver and 15 bronze won by Japanese athletes, 58 in total, placed the hosts on the third step on the podium even while coming in 5th according to the other medal accountancy approach. However, more importantly, the numbers obtained by Japan at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games set their national record and exceeding Athens 2004 (with 16 golds and a total of 37 medals).
Jorge Fonseca e Patrícia Mamona
5 gold medals in 100 years of participation. From Paris to Paris
The Olympic Games return to Paris in 2024; one century on from when it all began for Portugal.
In terms of the Olympic performance in terms of precious metals, with 28 in total, Portugal accounts for 5 gold, 9 silver and 14 bronze spread across 9 events.
Athletics leads the way in the medal count: 12 in total. It’s also the field that returns the gold: Pedro Pichardo (2020) and Nélson Évora (2008) in the triple jump, Fernanda Ribeiro (1996), in the 10,000 metres and Rosa Mota (1988) and Carlos Lopes (1984) in the marathon stand out as the only athletes, all competing in athletics events, who have won gold for Portugal.
Aged 37, Lopes, in Los Angeles, USA, was the first Portuguese gold winner with the time of 2h09m21s, an Olympic record. The feat gained him the honour of receptions from two presidents. Firstly, to a barbecue held in Lisbon’s São Bento Gardens and resulting from a promise made by President Mário Soares in August and later, in October, at a meeting with the United States President Ronald Reagan. Lopes would also become the first non-American sportsman to appear in “The Simpsons”.
The men and women who ran, jumped, threw discs and weights are joined by their peers from sailing (4), equestrianism and judo (3). As a point of interest, the last medal in sailing now dates back to Atlanta 1996 (Hugo Rocha and Nuno Barreto in the class 470), equestrianism belongs to times long gone, on the eve of the second half of the last century (London 1948) and with judo joining the list for the first time at the beginning of this century (bronze by Nuno Delgado in Sydney 2000).
PARALYMPICS ON THE VERGE OF 100 MEDALS
After its debut in Heidelberg 1972, Sweden with wheelchair basketball teams, and before an absence at the two subsequent Games, Toronto 1976 and Arnhem 1980, New York 1984 signalled the second Paralympic participation and the beginning of Portuguese victories at the Paralympic Games.
The first podium was repeated 14 times on that occasion. Henceforth, the Portuguese Paralympic Committee, at the ten consecutive Games, has always touched down back in Lisbon accompanied by medals. Podium positions in the United States were repeated in Seoul 1988 (South Korea) and Atlanta 1996 (USA) when there was one less medal than in Sydney 2000 (Australia), a Paralympics with good memories for those in Portuguese colours: 20 medals won by the largest ever Portuguese team containing 52 athletes.
In Tokyo 2020, Portugal received the plaudits for 94 medals. 25 gold, 30 silver and 39 bronze. Athletics, with 54 medals, boccia, 26, and swimming with nine medals are the events that most contributed to the national medal haul. There was also space on the podium for the cycling (2 medals), football (1) and table tennis (1). Miguel Monteiro, shotput F40 (Athletics) and Nuno Mourão, in the canoeing (200m VL2), events making their premiere, are the final athletes to contribute to the total.
Paris 2024 will be the stage for the 17th Games for those with special needs. Taking place between 28 August and 8 September, the program features 22 sports. Portugal requires six extra medals to reach the 100 landmark.
Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games set their national record and exceeding Athens 2004 (with 16 golds and a total of 37 medals).
Into this record come two from canoeing (Fernando Pimenta and Emanuel Silva, London 2012 and Fernando Pimenta, Tokyo 2020), cycling (Sérgio Paulinho, Athens 2004), shooting (Armando Marques, Montreal 1976), triathlon (Vanessa Fernandes, Beijing 2008) and fencing (team medal Amsterdam 1928).
Breaking, surfing, skateboarding and climbing
In the year of four events premiering in Tokyo, Gustavo Ribeiro (Skateboarding, street), eighth place and Yolanda Hopkins (Surf, shortboard), fifth, obtained Olympic diplomas in their own first Games at the respective ages of 20 and 23.
Pablo Pichardo e Fernando Pimenta
“We missed out on opportunities to qualify in karate and climbing”, recalled José Manuel Constantino, President of the Portuguese Olympic Committee.
For Paris 2024, between 26 July through to 11 August, there are two more board sports debuting on land (skateboarding) and on sea (surfing), while retaining climbing, karate is out in place of a new sport reaching out to Generation Z. Breaking, a dance style connected with hip-hop, that emerged in New York in the 1970s.
“I confess that this is an area that I do not dominate with sufficient security but from that conveyed by those responsible for the sport and the federation of sports dancing is that there is both quality and international level results. We shall wait and see”, explained José Manuel Constantino.
As regards the renewal of the sports undertaken by the International Olympic Committee, the head of the Portuguese Olympic structure stated: “There should be a sporting reason to explain the inclusion of different sports and with the reason not resulting from commercial pressures that the ‘sponsors’ of these sports wield in the sporting market”.
“Everything that is a sport designed to win over new publics is positive. Skateboarding and surfing are spectacular”, he added. “It is good for the Olympic program and for the respective sports. It provides them with a showcase… we have to be aware and help out. The Olympic Games provide an enormous input”, he guaranteed.
José Manuel Constantino also considers that “if we accept the thesis that new sports make sense, others, older, have to be reduced”. He quoted the examples of “fencing and swimming” that should “remain as Olympic sports but should have their number of events reduced especially because we have to reduce some in order to allow others to enter”. Furthermore, “there are combat sports, geographically localised, without any global scales but that have strong lobbies and have kept their place”, he concluded.
Three years off Paris, ever since Los Angeles, Portugal has only ever come back empty-handed once; in 1992 (Barcelona). Ever since the Olympic Mission has always returned with medals from each of the five subsequent Games.
100 years on from the first medal, it is the Portuguese athletes who bear the motto: “Citius, Altius, Fortius”.
10 QUESTIONS TO JOSÉ MANUEL CONSTANTINO
PRESIDENT OF THE PORTUGUESE OLYMPIC COMMITTEE
Were you expecting the country’s connection to Tokyo during the early hours?
There were good results, there was good coverage. With good press coverage, there is good public opinion. One thing drives the other.
Four medals in Tokyo, double that contracted with the government and the institute of sport and youth. What is your overview?
Positive. The objectives established were achieved. The percentages of success were significant. Despite everything, I have to recognise that the expectation in relation to positions on the podium were higher. A percentage for our Mission, 1/3, fell short. Other than that, the great majority, and in some specific cases, exceeded this.
When we look at the “Medals Table”, when might Portugal begin thinking about rising a few places within the European context?
Within the European context, there were 50 countries participating. 40 managed positions on the podium. At the European level, we are at the top of the lower half. In terms of the EU, we are at the bottom of the top half. We shall only be able to do better if we have an attitude of maximising the potentials that the country and its athletes have and, to this end, it is essential that everything aligns: that there is talent, the desire of athletes to make use of their talents and to express themselves at the highest level, that there are human resources qualified to help these athletes and that the general environment, the sport, federation and policies are favourable. If we establish this complementarity between these different actors, success becomes much easier. If not, we may get close but we won’t get there. And this helps explain the 4th and 5th places and not getting into podium positions. What makes the difference are the details.
Do we have more talent nowadays?
In judo, handball, football, athleticism, canoeing and aquatic sports, we’re getting results we didn’t a decade ago. The competitive profile of Portugal within the international context in the last two decades is incomparably greater than the past in a European context which is distinctive. One thing is having Europe and the USSR. Another is having Russia and 15 other countries that emerged since its breakup. At the Los Angeles Olympic Games, with the USSR boycotting, with three medals, Portugal came in 23rd. This time, Portugal ranked 80th.
We have infrastructures, public and private investment and the technical component. Is that the secret of the respective sports?
I’m not quite so positive. There is a deficit in the technical qualifications among those working in the youth area where we must raise qualifications. Either you do a good job there or you don’t get the results. I would point to the example of football. The work done with the younger age groups, by Carlos Queirós and Nelo Vingada, the federation and the relationship with the universities, ISEF. Today, we export talent, players, trainers and managers. In other sports, there has been strong investment in child-youth sports, particularly in the qualifications of the human resources involved. For high performance, multidisciplinary teams are needed. This does not boil down to having a trainer. We have both a quantitative and qualitative deficit in the high performance sector. We need people qualified across the areas of physiology, physiotherapy, psychology and anatomy.
And is there time to wait?
Just like in football, there is no time. Really, no time at all. Either there is success and this enables some reforms or nobody is willing, not the political powers, public opinion and the media for participation with objectives: our podium positions are those in eight years time. Nobody gives us that amount of time.
We have to have medium and long term perspectives without missing out on solutions in the present. We have to get results in the present. And to do that, we have to know that there were already stages passed through during training. Now, it is about extracting the maximum returns and adding the pieces that I mentioned.
How do you perceive the naturalisation of athletes?
With the same naturalness that I perceived Obikwelu when he won silver (Athens 2004). This is an inevitable process, the mobility of athletes seeking better conditions in their sporting and personal lives. And given the nature of sporting representation, given they represent the states, they should be regulated. So that the demand is curbed on the attractiveness of rich countries over poor countries and, on the other hand, to ensure some dignity to the act of national representation. For the process to be regulated from the civil point of view, by the state and sporting organisations so as to place tighter rules than those currently existing to avoid situations when those who have already represented other countries then migrate.
From a broader viewpoint, I always question why this issue is raised in relation to sport and not as regards other cultural activities. How many Portuguese born performers are there in the Gulbenkian ballet or symphony orchestra? Sport always lives out this drama of national representation in being genuinely national when talking about the quality of the performers. Sport has always faced an apartheid type regime in relationship to other social activities. This needs many identity mechanisms and greatly involves recognition due to the connections of those who represent a country having a blood or birth connection with that same country.
Mobility is therefore an unavoidable reality today…
Mobility is higher than in the past. The federations receive dozens of inquiries by the agents of athletes seeking to be naturalised. We do not have much notion about what is going on but it is happening and there are organised people involved. Therefore, before this becomes a jungle, there is a need regulate to ensure good sense and a proper balance.
What were the first Olympic Games that you saw?
I’m already old but not so elderly in terms of watching the Games. I don’t remember: perhaps Munich 72 I think, ever since there was television coverage.
QUALIFICATIONS AMONG THOSE
WORKING IN THE YOUTH AREA
WHERE WE MUST RAISE QUALIFICATIONS.
EITHER YOU DO A GOOD JOB
THERE OR YOU DON’T GET THE RESULTS.”
